The Dash

Show Recap: Blu & Exile, and Aloe Blacc too

January 26, 2012

The prodigious LA indie emcee Blu and partner on the decks Exile came to rock 330 Ritch in San Francisco last night with support from Foreign Legion and Honor Roll Crew’s Spank Pops. And sneaking onto the stage was Aloe Blacc, fresh from a set with the Gary Bartz Project earlier in the evening.

When he performs, Blu lives up to his name. Calm would be an understatement, as he kept to the side of the stage, leaning on the mic stand for much of the performance, and kept his monotone style monotone, which is what the crowd expected and showed their appreciation for. Occasionally cracking up between rhymes, he kept his cool for the most part until the moment Aloe Blacc showed up. Still trim and proper from his outing with jazz legend Gary Bartz and Bilal, he climbed onto the stage to spit several bars of his own. Afterwards, he paid tribute to Blu, speaking on his debut album, “Put that shit next to Bizarre Ride (II the Pharcyde), put that next to Innercity Griots. Hip-hop is alive.”

As for Foreign Legion, the Oakland-based crew of Prozak Turner, Marc Stretch and DJ Flip, their modus operandi couldn’t had been in any way more different. Hyper and kinetic, Prozak paced and skipped around the stage with wild gestures and martial arts moves. Prozac went as far as to do the splits one moment, and in another he climbed onto his partner Marc, easily twice his size, to pantomime a power bomb (Big Daddy Diesel style, for you WWF heads).